GoldieBlox is the brainchild of Stanford (Calif.) University graduate and engineer turned
entrepreneur Debbie Sterling.She created GoldieBlox — including a construction toy set and
storybook starring the tool-wielding character Goldie — to teach girls basic engineering skills and
open more pathways for women into the male-dominated industry.

“I’m trying to give girls something more than just dolls and princesses,” she said.

Sterling, 30, hopes that the soon-to-be-released GoldieBlox will teach more girls to love
tech-heavy disciplines and open their minds to engineering. And if Sterling can shake up the
old-school toy industry, which for years has offered girls little more than busty dolls and pink
Legos, all the better, she said.

“If you’re a little girl, you have Barbie and Polly Pocket,” Sterling said. “You have fashion
icons and beauty and spa, and you’re told what’s important is what you look like.”

But this isn’t just a plug for girl power: GoldieBlox has caught the attention of researchers
and educators nationwide who say the toy could help engage more girls in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics, or STEM, an education priority for the Obama administration.

The GoldieBlox book, written and illustrated by Sterling, follows Goldie as she invents machines
and solves problems with a cast of animal friends that includes a Spanish-speaking dog, Nacho, and
a tutu-wearing pink dolphin. The pegboard and tool kit allow kids to build whatever Goldie is
building in the book and to learn engineering concepts such as how a wheel and axle work — and the
basics of tension, force and friction.

Sterling, who graduated from Stanford with an engineering degree in 2005, developed GoldieBlox
with help from Kickstarter, an online crowd-funding platform for creative projects.

The project was inspired by the gender inequity that Sterling witnessed firsthand as an
engineering student.

“I was one of very few women in the program,” she said. “In every class I went into, I was
always one of a handful of girls in a room of 80 or 90 people. It’s hard being a minority in a
male-dominated field.”

The toy is available online and scheduled to arrive in some retail stores in April.Sterling
plans to turn GoldieBlox into a series and to launch an interactive digital version for the Apple
iPad later this year.